Driving in traffic...

With Steve in the backseat. I just ate an entire Tupperware of watermelon an we've been stuck in traffic for 45 minutes at the George Washington bridge. I already slept for two hours. I hope we get home before midnight!

Abby is adorable

I went to NY this past weekend and had some nice chats with Abigail.

Sewing up a storm

Ok, I made a few more things. My sister Jenna now has a bag as well, and I finally got around to making one for myself. But what I'm really excited about is this shirt I made! I actually made something that I can wear.

Yes that's right. There's even pleating on it! Who knew I could learn how to do pleating?

My completed ensemble. I wore this to work on a Friday since we can wear jeans. It was a little chilly, so I had a black cardigan over the shirt.

Now for my next project I'll be attempting a skirt. If all goes well, I might actually try the pattern I bought for a dress. Right now I'm a little intimidated by it, but we'll see how these smaller pieces go!

A Puppy!

One day Dane and I will get a dog. We can't have pets in our apartment right now, so we go to the pet store and play with them instead. Sometimes it's fun, other times I'm just sad because I want to bring them all home. But we keep doing it anyway. This is a Yorkshire terrier that we played with over the weekend. He has a ton of energy and was so tiny!

I made something AGAIN!

So after the success of my first tote bag, I decided to make another for my mom. She may have hinted that she wants one. I knew that would happen so I already bought fabric for her bag weeks ago. I worked on it this weekend and finally finished last night. This time I added a pocket on the front and longer straps. I also put the fabric at the bottom and the whale at the top for my Mama Bear.

Hanging out on my chair in my craft room. I had to just sit back and admire it once I finished.

The whole bag. It's the same size as the one I made for Melissa.

The little whale. Emily drew it and I cut it out of fabric. My mom will probably name it Scylla, because when we were little we adopted a whale for her and it's name was Scylla.

Look at the pocket! My mom usually carries a ton of stuff around, so I figured she's probably want an extra pocket on the front of the bag. There aren't any pockets inside. I haven't quite figured out how to make that happen yet.

Next up is a bag for Jenna. I think I'm going to use the pretty pink fabric I got at IKEA. She likes pink and I haven't figured out what else to do with that fabric yet.

Melissa's Visit!

I'm so happy that Melissa got to come up for the weekend. We had so much fun and managed to fit a lot into only about a day and a half. Still not sure how we did that.

I picked her up at 8:30pm from the ferry in CT. We got back to the apartment a little late, so she just had a snack and then we all went to bed. On Saturday we went to the aquarium and had a blast.

Right outside the aquarium is a harbor seal exhibit. This seal was just floating around and came right up to the glass to get a closer look at us. Melissa got a closer look too.

We found these turtles and decided to hang out.

This is one of the penguins. This picture actually came out pretty well. I had to zoom in a bit to get up close and personal with this little guy.

This penguin's name is Tom. Melissa named him after they had a moment together. They gazed into each other's eyes. It was really moving.

This little penguin had us watching him for a while. He seems very unsure of himself, but he really wants to take a dip in the water. He's not really the most graceful bird, but he makes it in.

This is Little Blue. I named him. He was pretty much the tiniest fish in this big tank of tropical fish. You can't help but see how much he stands out in front of all that coral.

This is Melissa looking in the big tank. I feel like it almost looks fake, but those are all the fishes swimming around. We saw Myrtle the Giant Sea Turtle too. At first she was sleeping, but then she woke up to rule over her domain. She's bigger than the sharks in the tank! (Side note, Myrtle recently tried to steal food from a shark in this tank. She's giant and has a giant appetite too.)

We found this little guy hanging out on a bench all alone. Melissa gave him some company.

How cool are these masks? Don't even pretend like you're not afraid. We look just like fierce sharks.

Melissa is already planning her next trip up for July when I'm off from work. Hopefully we'll get a little more time together then since I don't have to work!

Mom and Dad come to Boston

Last weekend my parents came up to visit and to meet Dane's parents for the first time. We had a great weekend together. Here are some highlights.

First thing dad had to do was get some clams from Haymarket. I think he's been dreaming of this for weeks now.

Then we went down by the water before getting some cannolis in the North End. So delicious.

For anyone that doesn't know, my mom is a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner. Her patients are usually 75 years old and above. We passed by this sign in the North End and she was really excited. She just had to have a picture with it.

After walking around all morning on Saturday we went to the Wake Up the Earth Festival in JP right near our apartment. We were joined by Sam and Jason. Sam and I got some fried dough. It was SO good. Here we are about to enjoy our yummy treat.

Mom and I enjoyed some time just hanging out and listening to the music with Mia. Mia was so excited to see everyone and be outside on the grass.

After the festival, we all went back to our apartment for dinner. I made hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, corn, and Dad made a fruit salad. During dinner we watched the most exciting two minutes in sports, the Kentucky Derby. Emily suggested we place some bets, so while I cooked everyone created a pool and picked horses. Jason ended up winning with Mine that Bird, the number 8 horse. It was amazing to watch the race! Jason's horse was dead last at the beginning and pulled through all the other horses to come in first by about 6 lengths.

We had such a great time with everyone! I hope they all come back to visit soon :)

I made something!

My dear sister Melissa came to visit this weekend. We had a ton of fun (another post will follow with pictures from the weekend) and I made my first thing with my new sewing machine. I got the fabric at IKEA and the pattern here. I took my time with it since it was my first time really making something.

I'm so impressed with how it came out! I had a bit of trouble with the appliques, my zig zag stitch was not cooperating. But overall I'm so proud I made this!

My baby sister modeling the bag. I think it's safe to say she loves it. She carried it around all day yesterday, even when she really didn't need a bag. When she got home to NY, I immediately got a request from my mom who wants one. Luckily, I saw that coming and already bought the fabric I'm going to use for my mom's bag.

Everyone's getting a tote bag for Christmas!